Dayna McIsaac, Food Stylist, Recipe Developer, Food Writer

When I began blogging about food, I thought I was going to recall memories, be opinionated where food should come from and, hopefully, write a few decent recipes down along the way.
I was not at all planning on enjoying the outcome of my photos rather than my dishes. Don't get me wrong, everything I shot, I made and usually ate or fed to company shortly there after. Recipes still had to work well and be tasty but I found myself stirring in the key ingredients imagining how I might style the finished plate of food.

Food is meant to look good. It's natural for it to be appealing for us in order to know when things are most ripe and at their tastiest, so why not photograph it from a great angle with a matching napkin?

Eggless Opéra Cake

It’s terrible but it’s the truth. I almost didn’t attempt to veganize this month’s Daring Baker Challenge.
Daunting to say the least when a cake has a dozen eggs in it to somehow replace. (…And that’s not including the other two that were in the buttercream recipe.)

After making the original version I had to share. I mean, what’s the point of this site if everyone can’t share good food together?

I halved the recipe (because the other cake was enormous) and started in on my trials. I stuck to the traditional recipe as close as I could without those eggs but having had the other I had a general idea as to what I was after. This cake is very light without too much flavour. It’s a perfect canvas to add your own and it this case we, The Daring Bakers, were able to get creative just as long as we kept it light in colour. Again having the other version I knew what I liked and didn’t so choosing a flavour this time around was pretty easy. In my traditional version, I really wanted to go give it a Taste of Yellow in honour of one great and Daring Baker, Barbara of Winos and Foodies, who hosts the Livestrong event. For that I made an Earl Grey with a lemon buttercream so for this version I wanted to keep the citrus but add some kick with just a little brandy syrup, and boy did my little cake sing.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Line a 5 x 8 inch loaf pan with parchment then lightly spray with oil.
Add the dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
Combine the soy milk and the vinegar, then add to the dry.
Mix vigorously with a fork.
Once combined, consistency will be similar to a pancake batter.
Pour about 1/2 cup of batter into the prepared pan to cover the bottom to the edges.
Bake for 5 – 7 minutes or until the top appears golden, begins to dry and the edges come away from the sides.
Loosen edges with a knife, if necessary and top with an additional sheet of parchment or waxed paper.
Flip pan to remove the cake, cooling on a rack to room temperature.
Reline the pan and repeat with the remainder of the batter, baking three cakes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine half of the sugar with the margarine.
Add the orange zest and juice and mix on a medium-high setting.
Add the remainder of the sugar, half a cup at a time.
Once it has come together, then add the vanilla to incorporate.
Continue to up the volume with a higher speed until light and creamy.

ASSEMBLY

(Note: The finished cake should be served slightly chilled. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 day).

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Place one cake layer on the baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup.

Spread about one-third of the buttercream over this layer.

Top with the second layer of cake and moisten again with the flavoured syrup.

Spread another third of the buttercream on the cake and then top with the third layer of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde. Spread the remaining buttercream on top of the final layer of joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).

At this point a glaze of white chocolate may be made. I omitted this tradition but for a vegan white chocolate try this one from Bittersweet. Melt 7 oz of the chocolate with 1/4 cup of soy milk. Once it has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.

Trim the edges 1/2″ to reveal the layers.
Garnish with additional orange zest, candied or not, if desired.

Vegan_Noodle-What a beautiful opera cake! I love your choice of flavors. I approximately halved mine too, and I still have cake in the fridge!

JennDZ_The LeftoverQueen-I am really really impressed that you veganized this! It looks amazing! Whenever I change the chemistry in my baking endeavors it never works out! You are a genius! I love the sound of your other one too – the lemon and Earl Grey! Sounds heavenly!

Mary-Your opera cake is just lovely and I love the flavour combination!

Janet Louise-Let them eat eggless cakes!
… and may your sterling efforts to lighten our path to great healthy and animal-friendly cuisine be blessed! Thank you.

allie -I’m in culinary school and we make a normal version on l’opera, but I myself am vegan so I am insanely excited to try this recipe tonight. (although i’m going to make it with traditional coffee and chocolate flavors.) thanks for the inspiration!